


the monkey thought 'twas all in fun

by appleheart



Series: LoZ Unusual Word Prompts [3]
Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Genre: Fridge Horror, Gen, Ha Ha Ow, Pre-Canon, Teasing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-04
Updated: 2015-08-04
Packaged: 2018-04-13 00:48:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 393
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4501380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/appleheart/pseuds/appleheart
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Midna enjoys teasing Zant. She thinks he enjoys being teased.</p>
            </blockquote>





	the monkey thought 'twas all in fun

**Author's Note:**

> From the prompt "Agelast - A person who never laughs", from [editoress](http://editoress.tumblr.com).

Zant’s mouth was never more than a thin dark line. He barely opened his lips wide enough to speak his mind. “Stop mumbling!” Midna would say, jabbing him in the side with her long fingernails. She did so even when he took pains to enunciate, usually because he was saying something unpleasant about the governance of the Twilight Realm and it entertained her to pretend she hadn’t understood him.

The other Twili who served on her council would laugh with her. Zant never would. No matter how she teased, how she mimicked his stiff carriage and smothered speech, plucking jokes out of his heavy speeches that he had never intended, she could never draw so much as a smile from him. He would only blink slowly, owlishly at her, then continue what he was saying. 

“If you grow weary of such impish tricks, my princess, we must discuss the waning of the Twilight,” he told her once.

Midna threw herself back into her chair like she had been stabbed. “If I didn’t tease, I would  _die of boredom_ ,” she announced. “I am waning, right now, before your eyes, with every word you say.” And, as he drew breath to continue, she crossed her eyes and stuck out her tongue in parody of death.

She was fond of her adviser, in point of fact. She did not mean to be cruel, even at her most biting. She found Zant funny in spite of his lack of humor, found his gracelessness strangely charming. None of  the other Twili were half so much fun to tease. No one took such pains to defy her—not with Zant’s excruciatingly polite, deferential patience.

The others said that Zant was impossible to amuse, incapable of smiling. Midna believed that nothing was impossible. Nor did she believe that he did not—in his heart—cherish her teasing, just as every one of the Twili cherished their quick-witted, sharp-tongued princess.

When at last she began to find him smiling to himself in remote corners of her court, eyes crinkled shut in private mirth, or heard a strange laugh like a gasp come from him when no one was around, she thought she had gotten through to him. Her long campaign of devilry had broken his facade at last.

But it was a different sort of demon that had gotten to him.


End file.
